An intermediate layer consisting of a few atoms is helping to improve the transport of spin currents from one material to another. Until now, this process involves significant losses. A team from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Microstructure Physics, and the Freie Universität Berlin reports in the ACS scientific journal Nano Letters on how this can be avoided. The researchers thus demonstrate important new insights relevant for many spintronic applications, including energy-efficient and ultra-fast storage technologies of the future.